hitting a plateau in riding an pushing through

more important than many realize. I'm hardly young anymore either, and i remember before riding dirt bikes a bunch every month, being pooped after a six lap sprint race. hard to focus on things ya need too when you are tired.

 

So many things here...whew!

First, To get better at something, you need an objective opinion from someone that can offer you proper technique.....not advice. This thread is full of great advice. Second, there is an order to our sport, and once you understand the order, you can look at where you are at in that order and work on techniques, in the proper order that build into others.

With my 1-1 coaching at the Rick days (and YCRS to a degree) we work on what is holding you back the most to meet your goals. We work within the order of the sport to make that happen. A great example is with JD Beach this year. There were 3-4 things that we needed to work on, but we took the 1 biggest thing that was holding him back (which happened to be the 1st order of the sport of what I teach) and we stayed with just that, until it was muscle memory.....only then could we look at something else. Same with Garrett Gerloff now that I started working with him.

There are no silver bullets....just hard work and proper objective instruction.

Ken

 

I've had the opposite result with data. I've got the AIM EVO4 on my bike. It's really helped identify areas where I'm ok....and areas where I really need to improve. It also has taken the BS out of analyzing my riding. Our subjective impression of what we're actually doing on track it's always reflect reality, like where you're actually braking... Are you really on the gas 100% ect I will say having laps from a faster rider to compare your riding to is a massive help. It's not a magic bullet tho, you have to spend hours looking at it and trying to think things through. I've seen too many riders add the system then never really look at the data....at that point it's really just a very expensive lap timer

 

My 2 cents. After success in novice my first full season, I soon realized I had to come to terms with absolutely going faster in my upcoming first expert season. After some winter practice days(late 80s at Tally) and mentally focusing on basically all the aspects of it all, I came to my personal epiphany being absolutely -increased entry speed. When it comes down to it, that's pretty much where everyone's barrier is.

To increase exit speed, you need increased apex speed. To have any increase there, you first have to have increased entry speed. This is achieved by solid confidence in the front end at turn in. Sounds simple, but it isn't.

Don't confuse late braking with increased entry speed. Sometimes earlier braking can result in a faster more confident entry.

Fwiw, I then won both my very first 2 expert races of the season(trading paint for 10 laps with Kurt Hall in both BSB and Formula USA) and ended up regional champ in BSB my first expert season. Also owned the track record at Tally(59:22) that yr for a very short period of time until Polen broke it later that same day. So it must have helped. Good luck with your quest.

 

these 2 things make a lot of assumptions about a persons riding that def arent true for even mid-pack experts. its mostly true that maximum apex speed and max straight speed are fixed. but the OP has already admitted to needing to work on corner speed, which will also affect his straight speed. so theres def time to be made up in these 2 areas. the real question is there more time be made up w/ these 2 or working on braking deeper.

 

Entry speed/Corner speed are a byproduct of the proper braking graph vs the radius of the corner. Once you understand where in the graph certain points are (brake timing) it solves this issue easily.

Ken

 

So you're saying proper technique creates the speed, Yes?

 

Ummmmm, yes.

 

Can you post a brake graph with a proper curve? I'm guessing it monotonically decreases in brake pressure until the bike is at the apex of the curve.

I like the gpx pro, I can take my fastest lap from the last time I was there and see in practice where I was losing the time. Then you can get data from somebody faster than you and overlay where they are faster. Until you get within 1s and they quit sharing lol

 

I got a friend who I started racing with 3 years ago and we have leap frogged each other to the point where we are at. Which is mid/front pack of expert races. We both might be hitting a plateau though where we need help from people that really know whats going on.

 

I can, but it is something I draw out by hand with a student and reference specific corners. It won't make a ton of sense unless you hear it.....

Ken

 

I was joking... Sorry, My jokes don't seem to work well in text.

 

Mini bikes on dirt and pavement.
Get comfortable with the bike moving around.
You can go over the limits and not get punished as bad as at roadracing speeds.

 

I haven't read this thread but this is proper advice. And like he said, easier said then done.